Here’s a new worry for Ohio HR pros who play a role in deciding whether to fire employees: You could end up being sued personally if it turns out that the discharge was wrongful under Ohio’s public policy exception to at-will employment. That means your own assets—not just the company’s—are at risk. Here’s how it works:

When employees complain about alleged discrimination, it’s easy for managers and even other co-workers to get angry. Warn everyone to keep their opinions to themselves. Reacting angrily and then punishing those who complain for having a poor attitude is most certainly not a good idea.

Here’s a reminder that HR needs to do everything in its power to get FMLA decisions right: If you turn down an FMLA request and then punish the employee for missing work, she could sue, claiming she was retaliated against for requesting FMLA leave in the first place. Reversing the original FMLA decision won’t end the case.

Supervisors need regular reminders—reinforced with training—that it’s their responsibility to find ways to deal with it when workers go on FMLA leave, no matter how difficult it may be to cover for the absent employee. As the following case shows, courts have no sympathy for employers that fire or make unreasonable demands on employees who exercise their FMLA rights.

Citing “repulsive harassment and discrimination,” attorney Julie Kamps has sued her former employer, the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, for $50 million. Kamps said she was told her clothing didn’t “fit into typical feminine stereotypes.”

Ever since the EEOC began tracking discrimination complaints, race bias has been the most popular claim. Not anymore. Claims of employer retaliation now top the charts—33,613 claims in fiscal 2009. This means managers, supervisors (and you) need to be more careful than ever to avoid lashing out against employees or applicants who file—or simply voice—complaints of discrimination.

Some employers don’t want to hire applicants who haven’t succeeded elsewhere and create a blanket no-hire rule for any applicant who isn’t eligible for rehire by a former employer. If you’re tempted to do the same, make sure you enforce the rule uniformly and don’t make exceptions.

Employees sometimes gripe rather generally about working conditions. If those complaints don’t relate to some specific allegation based on protected characteristics like sex, age, national origin or the like, courts probably won’t consider the complaint protected activity that sets up a retaliation lawsuit.

A former city of Freeport HR director has sued the municipality and one of its administrators for defamation and retaliation, and is charging that she was paid less than a male co-worker. Minette Ashley filed suit in Brazoria County District Court after City Manager Jeff Pynes fired her and then accused her of bias.

You’ve documented the poor performance. You’ve been careful to keep things professional, even as you’ve concluded you’ll probably have to fire the employee. Then he files a discrimination complaint. Avoid the temptation to speed up the usual disciplinary process.

If you discipline a supervisor for discrimination, make sure you can reassure employees who cooperated in the investigation that the supervisor won’t turn around and punish them.

When OSHA said it had received an anonymous complaint about safety conditions at one of Brocon Petroleum’s work sites, executives there had a pretty good idea who made the call. So the Freehold-based company fired the employee. OSHA did not take it well ...

Freeport’s former fire chief has sued the city and the city manager, claiming he was wrongfully terminated for reporting an alleged violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

For a few employees, every workplace problem has its roots in some kind of discrimination. They’re the ones who continually file bias complaints, and they’re a continual source of frustration for supervisors who must constantly fend off unfounded accusations. Warn those bosses that overreacting will only lead to more trouble.

A new state law significantly increases the penalties against employers that retaliate against whistle-blowers—by 1000%. Passed by the New York State Assembly last summer and enacted at the end of 2009, the new law sets the minimum fine for whistle-blower retaliation at $2,000.